Tom Krein is a young custom knifemaker who has created quite a stir with his Mid Tech Dogfish neck knife. It seemed like the perfect affordable CRKT production knife, so here it is. Tom has a great sense of style, so unlike many skeletonized flat blades, the Dogfish™ is graceful, gives a secure grip, and also has that dogfish face at the pommel which turns out to be—a lanyard hole and bottle opener! It has a secure finger choil and friction grooves at the thumb spine and near the butt.

We E.D.M. wire cut it from a single piece of high-carbon stainless steel, bevel grind the 2.25” modified Wharncliffe blade, give it a fine bead-blast finish and add a Razor-Sharp or Combined Razor-Sharp and Triple-Point™ Serrated edge.

You also get a custom-fitted six-eyelet Kydex® sheath that grips the knife securely for inverted carry with the neck chain included, or with the MercHarness described below. It’s a useful, friendly minimal knife that’s a great value.

• About the Knife Designer • About the Blade Steel

George Matheis, known professionally as Mercop, is one of those big, burly cops who commands your respect instantly. As a certified weapons instructor at the state and federal level, he is a fan of inverted fixed-blade carry in Kydex® or Zytel® detented sheaths for emergency self-defense. But most harnesses are complex, bulky and uncomfortable. Neck chains require a tie-down to position the knife. So George developed his MercHarness™, a revolutionary way to carry fixed blades of any size.

The harness is a length of mil-spec paracord, gutted so it is flat. Soft rubber keepers allow adjustment of the harness even when wearing it. Users just tie the cord through the eyelets of their fixed blade sheath and slip the MercHarness over their shoulders.

George’s key words are comfort and concealability. Comfort means you can carry even larger fixed blades such as the CRKT Hissatsu. The MercHarness can be worn under uniforms, tactical vests or casually under a T-shirt. It’s durable, inexpensive, lightweight and moves with the body.

The MercHarness does not need tie-downs. You can position the knife under the arm or slightly forward and it stays oriented. Drawing from the MercHarness is lightning quick with either a cross draw to the forward grip, or a same-side draw to a reverse grip. So sometimes, simple really is better.

CAUTION: The CRKT MercHarness™ is intended for use only with molded and fitted fixed blade sheaths made of Kydex®, Concealex®, or Zytel®, which have a detent system designed to grip the knife during inverted carry. Do not attempt to use the MercHarness on leather sheaths, or on any sheath which because of wear or improper design, does not grip the knife securely. It is the responsibility of the user to determine that any sheath used with the MercHarness meets these criteria. Columbia River Knife & Tool is not responsible for loss or damage caused by failure of the MercHarness owner’s sheath. Liability is solely limited to the replacement cost of any MercHarness which is defective in materials or workmanship for one year from date of purchase.

• About the Designer